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The nation’s 2,600 onshore turbines ran at 28.7 per cent of their peak capacity on average during 2009, compared to 23 per cent in Denmark and Spain and 17.4 per cent in Germany.

However, with fewer turbines, Britain generates 58 watts of wind power per person compared to 518 in Denmark, 425 in Spain and 320 in Germany.

Britain is already committed to reducing emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 and increasing its proportion of energy from renewable sources from 3 per cent in 2009 to 15 per cent by 2020.

The new carbon budget for 2022 to 2027 will increase the pace of cuts to set the country on a trajectory to halve carbon emissions by 2025 from 1990 levels.

It will mean major investment in wind farms, electric cars and recycling, while households will have to be better insulated and switch to greener energy.

However, government figures last month showed suggested that the winds which sweep Britain may be weakening. Thirteen of the past 16 months have been calmer than normal – while 2010 was the "stillest" year of the past decade.

Meteorologists believe that changes to the Atlantic jet stream could alter the pattern of winds over the next 40 years and leave the nation's wind farms running at lower capacity.